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| NCAR Command Language | |
|---|---|
| Name | NCAR Command Language |
| Developer | National Center for Atmospheric Research; University Corporation for Atmospheric Research |
| Released | 1984 |
| Programming language | Fortran (programming language), C (programming language) |
| Operating system | Unix, Linux, Microsoft Windows, macOS |
| License | UCAR Community Programs' |
NCAR Command Language The NCAR Command Language is a domain-specific scripting language and array-oriented programming environment for atmospheric and geoscientific data analysis, visualization, and modeling workflows. It integrates numerical computation, statistical processing, and high-quality graphics for researchers at institutions such as the National Center for Atmospheric Research, NOAA, NASA, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, and United States Department of Energy. The language has been used in conjunction with major observational programs like ARM Climate Research Facility, GOES (satellite), MODIS and model intercomparison initiatives such as CMIP.
Designed for scientists at organizations including National Science Foundation, Princeton University, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Columbia University, and University of Washington, the language emphasizes array operations, statistical routines, and plot generation. It interoperates with files and conventions employed by NetCDF, GRIB, HDF, and community tools like Python (programming language), MATLAB, R (programming language), IDL (programming language), and Ferret (software). The software is distributed to research groups, government labs, and academic centers such as Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction, and Met Office.
Origins trace to efforts at University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the 1980s, paralleling advances at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Early development occurred alongside data systems from Jet Propulsion Laboratory and visualization research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The language evolved through community-driven contributions from scientists affiliated with Rutgers University, University of Colorado Boulder, Iowa State University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Support for standards such as CF (climate and forecast) metadata convention and integration with Unidata services grew during collaborations with University Corporation for Atmospheric Research partners.
The language provides array-oriented syntax influenced by environments created at Bell Labs and computational models used at Argonne National Laboratory. Core constructs include vectors, matrices, spatial grids, and time-series types used by projects at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and European Space Agency. Control flow, user-defined procedures, and modular programming support mirror concepts found in languages from IBM research and academic compilers at Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley. Syntax facilitates manipulation of grids employed by GFDL model output, regridding used in CESM workflows, and columnar operations common in Hadley Centre datasets.
Built-in libraries encompass statistical routines referenced in studies at Columbia Climate Center and interpolation algorithms comparable to those developed at CERN analysis groups. Packages address spherical harmonics, EOF analysis, and Fourier transforms similar to codebases at National Institute of Standards and Technology, with numerical kernels akin to LAPACK and signal processing comparable to work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory. Specialized modules support radiative transfer calculations used by NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory researchers and chemistry routines aligned with efforts at NCAR atmospheric chemistry programs.
Support for community formats includes those curated by Unidata, Open Geospatial Consortium, and cooperative efforts like CF (climate and forecast) metadata convention. I/O routines read and write NetCDF, GRIB, HDF5, and ASCII tables common to archives at PANGAEA and National Snow and Ice Data Center. Integration enables workflows with archives maintained by NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and dataset distributions from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
Graphics features produce publication-quality plots used in journals affiliated with American Geophysical Union, European Geosciences Union, Journal of Climate, and Geophysical Research Letters. Mapping and cartographic tools leverage projections similar to those in PROJ (cartographic projections library) and datasets from Natural Earth, enabling overlays of basemaps used by US Geological Survey and thematic layers from Global Precipitation Measurement. Contouring, vector field plotting, and color table control are comparable to visualization suites developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the visualization community around VisIt and ParaView.
Practitioners at institutions such as University of California, Los Angeles, University of Miami, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, and Max Planck Institute for Meteorology use the language for climate diagnostics, weather model analysis, remote sensing processing, and oceanographic studies. Community support and training occur via workshops at AGU Fall Meeting, AMS Annual Meeting, European Geosciences Union General Assembly, and tutorials at research centers including National Center for Atmospheric Research and University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. The ecosystem connects with open-source projects and repositories maintained by organizations like GitHub, collaborative initiatives at Zenodo, and data portals operated by Earth System Grid Federation.
Category:Scientific programming languages